Ruthie insisted on a traditional steps photo for Max’s first visit to Le Petit Marais. He had a great time throwing sticks off the treehouse, playing on/off, on/off, on/off….. with the fountain and hurling himself fearlessly into the Moody pool. Shame about the weather.

One too many shuttlecocks has landed on the beam and the whole north end roof is about to fall down. Quel calamity. The acrow props look a bit dodgy – hopefully scaffold and jacks will be in place pretty soon.

The tree house was built by the Codgers a long time ago and its floor had rotted and rungs on the ladder kept snapping under your weight. Not a good look for a tree house. A few decking boards b(r)ought from B&Q and a few hours later and it was restored ready for Spike.

For a long time the landline at Le Petit Marais was hopeless and getting worse. Many men came and looked and merely complained it was my fault because of so many tree obstructing the line. One day Allan turned up to discover the pole had snapped off and was lying in the road. The call centre still denied there was a problem but eventually called a man who called another man who called another man until there were five men and three vans – one with a cherry picker. Works perfectly.